Life sentence for ice does not address the problem, say drug experts

Changes to the state's drug laws that will result in lower-level ice dealers facing a possible sentence of life in prison have been criticised by experts in the legal and drug rehabilitation sectors as an outdated response to NSW's ice problem.

Previously, people found in possession of a quantity of ice between 250 grams but below one kilogram - classified under legislation as a "commercial quantity" - could be charged with offences carrying a maximum penalty of 20 years.

A sample of the drug ice found by police.

But on Monday the NSW government announced the halving of the threshold for the more serious charges of supplying or manufacturing "large commercial quantities" of ice, which attracts a maximum sentence of life imprisonment, from one kilogram to 500 grams. The change takes effect from Tuesday.

Criminal law expert Stephen Odgers, SC, said the changes would increase the burden on the state's already overcrowded prisons without having any deterrent effect.

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"This will not result in any reduction in ice consumption or ice supply or ice manufacture and nobody could realistically think otherwise," he said.

"There have been many, many empirical studies which show that increases in the severity of penalties with increasing lengths of imprisonment do not have any real effect on the crime rate."

For young adults prosecuted under the new classification, the message was that they were beyond redemption, said Matt Noffs, chief executive of the Ted Noffs Foundation, a leading provider of drug rehabilitation services for adolescents.

"To put someone in for life is a diluted version of the execution of someone. It totally ignores the reality of the situation of kids who are stuck in a cycle of crime, and stuck in a cycle of poverty.

"We see so many kids who have been introduced to ice at 12 or 13 and are forced into prostitution around that time, so of course some of them are going to be dealing by the time they are adults."

The change reclassifies ice as more serious in the eyes of the law than heroin or cocaine, with the threshold for both of those drugs remaining at one kilogram for the same commercial supply charge.

Justifying the tougher penalties, Attorney-General Gabrielle Upton said ice dealers "profit from the misery and misfortune of others" and "must be held to higher account".

"Put simply, halving the threshold will mean more serious ice manufacturers and dealers will face the prospect of life behind bars."

Over the past five years, 139 people have been convicted in NSW of supplying commercial quantities of ice. The 26 people who were sentenced in the year to March 2015 received an average of three years' jail time, despite the charge carrying a maximum of 20 years.

Even though many of these offenders would be given harsher sentences if prosecuted today, the maximum penalty of life imprisonment would be reserved for the "worst-case" criminals where there are "no significant mitigating factors present", Mr Odgers said.

In practice, the impact of the government's crackdown would largely be limited to offenders "spend[ing] a few more years in prison, and politicians feel[ing] better that they're doing something to address the problem".

"All the money that's poured into enforcement and punishment would be much better spent on other methods for dealing with a serious social and medical problem."